Memeorandum

March 17, 2013

More Flexibility

The election and the North Korean missile tests give Obama the excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway:

MOSCOW — The United States has effectively canceled the final phase of a
Europe-based missile defense system that was fiercely opposed by Russia and cited repeatedly by the Kremlin as a major obstacle to cooperation on nuclear arms reductions and other issues.

Russian officials here have so far declined to comment on the
announcement, which was made in Washington on Friday by Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel as part of a plan to deploy additional ballistic missile interceptors to counter North Korea. The cancellation of some European-based defenses will allow resources to be shifted to protect against North Korea.

...

Russian leaders on several occasions used meetings with President Obama
to press their complaints about the missile defense program. At one such
meeting, in South Korea last March, Mr. Obama was heard on a live microphone
telling the outgoing Russian president Dmitri A. Medvedev in a private
aside that he would have “more flexibility” to negotiate on missile
defense after the November presidential election in November.

Pentagon officials said that Russia’s longstanding objections played no
role in the decision to reconfigure the missile interceptor program,
which they said was based on the increased threat from North Korea and
on technological difficulties and budget considerations related to the
Europe-based program.

Left unmentioned: the clarification that Russian objections played no part in the decision was made during the opening monologue on SNL.

It's hard to evaluate this decision without having a good handle on the capabilities (and technical feasibility) of the different versions of the interceptors, which I don't. But in general, I think it's a bad idea to downgrade defenses in the hope it'll make some prospective aggressor happy.

"I worry about this statement, not so much on its face, but that Progs are so hell bent on the US being just like Europe."

What the Progs love is their idealized and romanticized version of Europe. They spend several weeks or a semester in charming European cities or villages which were built by generations long past, I repeat, long past. There is nothing remotely charming about what Europe is building today. They never visit the carpy suburbs. They are totally clueless about how the average European lives today.

I never wanted the US to be Europe but after having a child making her life in Italy (in which she will become a permanent resident in September by marrying an Italian), any romanticized blinders I once had have been completely ripped off.

Part of it is Key Resolve (the new name for the joint US ROK military exercise). The second part is that this is a tactic well used by NK of making noise to get more aid. My guess is that it is worse than usual in NK for him to be this odd. Another angle is that the Iranians have a working relationship with them and that the Iranians (and possibily the Chinese) need a distraction. What better way for the Chinese to make whatever sort of moves they want to make than to have Lil' Un slip his leash.

My guess, the Chinese desperately want to be rid of him and the whole NK mess and are letting him act out, until such time as they can be rid of him and install their own NK general. The US, SK, and the rest of Asia will be greatful.

Since Jane is here, I'd like to add one more thing on the Portman back and forth as it relates to something she brought up yesterday. I have a lot more respect for Dick Cheney for the way he's addressed the issue, by answering questions that have been posed to him after others have made a big deal of his daughter's sexuality, while still disagreeing with his conclusion.

As for the shooting, the cops are being very reticent about it. They probably have a person of interest and need to control the release of info for some reason, but they've been pretty adamant that this wasn't a random incident. It was the first shooting in the town since 2005.